PGM 595R 'CHILLED EUPHORIA' : december 31-january 6

For fans of electronic music, one of the most impressive developments of the last 20 years has been the rise of rave culture. Reacting against the rigid formats of corporate rock, rave DJs and promoters invented their own guerrilla venues, built grassroots communities, and with the traditional help of the latest designer chemistry, enabled a new wave of Ecstatic group experience through continuous music and dance.

Energetic, idealistic, and resourceful, they gene-spliced a new generation of intelligent electronic dance music out of the DNA of 70s electronic bands like KRAFTWERK, TANGERINE DREAM and ASHRA, JEAN MICHEL JARRE, EURO-DISCO, and the driving rhythms of TECHNO. It's been so successful that you now hear it in television commercials.

You might ask why I'm talking about rave dance culture on Hearts of Space...we're all about the contemplative sound experience, aren't we? Well...yes, but you see, even the most ardent dancers have to rest, and even the longest evenings have to end. Departing ravers were faced with the task of spinning down their hyper-stimuated metabolisms and returning to the real world — or at least getting a little sleep. And out of this problem, dear listeners, was born the need to chill.

Chill culture may be seen as the therapeutic inverse of rave: One raves...perchance to chill. One chills...to rave anew. In time, the chillout space became an alternative venue within the rave itself. In England, the chill room took on a life of its own, spawning a subgenre of quieter music designed to create a kind of electronic landing zone — slow the mind, relax the muscles, and even achieve heightened awareness by manipulating brain states with more subtle rhythms and timbres.

On paper, the architects of chill began to sound perilously close to what we once called new age music. Perish the thought — but as you'll hear on this transmission of HEARTS of SPACE, based on two English double CD compilations called CHILLED EUPHORIA and DEEP AND CHILLED EUPHORIA — they came up with some excellent downtempo ambient music.

Part of the rave ethos is the use of multiple pseudonyms by artists determined to avoid rock-star ego-tripping. So even if I told you the names of these musicians and DJs, they'd be calling themselves something else next month. Besides, this rap's long enough already, so lets wait 'til later. An hour of CHILLED EUPHORIA...on this transmission...of Hearts of Space.